Sacrifice is the twentieth episode of the fourth season of Angel, and the eighty-sixth episode overall. Angel, Wesley, Lorne, Gunn, and Fred escape Jasmine's army by going underground, but there they run into trouble of another kind. Wesley finds a link to another dimension which might help them solve their Jasmine problem.

Plot Overview

Gunn, Lorne, Fred, Wesley, and Angel escape the hotel and head underground. There they meet up with some people who went underground when the Sun went down and aren't aware of its return. They have secured a location that prevents the intrusion by a particularly gruesome monster down there. Angel decides to go after this monster. One kid runs away when he sees Angel's vampire face and Wesley is kidnapped by the monster.

Gunn and Fred go after the kid, but he escapes to the surface. There he learns that the Sun is now out again and Gunn has to knock the kid unconscious in order to haul him back. However when they return with the kid and he wakes up, he has been turned. Meanwhile Wesley is with the monster who says that his kind have worshipped Jasmine for centuries. He hints that the source of her power is in her true name. Angel shows up to save Wesley and kills the monster. As this is happening Gunn, Fred, and Lorne escape the capture of Connor and his army. The find Angel and Wesley and hold the door shut. Wesley opens a portal to the monster's dimension but says that only Angel can enter.

Notes

Monster of the Week

Spider Demon: The spider demon that captures Wesley is part of an ancient race of demons who live in another, older, dimension. Their high priests are the ones who know the true name of Jasmine and have been awaiting her return to their dimension for what seems like centuries. The demons are very fast and strong, but are vulnerable to their own claws.

Body Count

#

Whom

By Whom

How

Where

1/2/3/4/5

Followers

Jasmine

Consumed

Hyperion

6

Spider Demon

Angel

Stabbed in the Neck

Sewer

Music

There is no licensed music in this episode.

Arc Advancement

Happenings

Big Bad: Jasmine is known as the devourer to another race of demons who worshipped her prior to her arrival on Earth. One of the demons that worshipped her has descended to this realm in order ro regain her attention using a blood magic spell, but he lets slip that Jasmine's power is taken away from her by her true name.

Characters

Referbacks

4x09 - Long Day's Journey: The Beast blotted out the sun over Los Angeles through several items taken from the corpses of the Ra-tet. As a result many humans went into hiding due to the huge influx of demons into the city.

Golden: Tommy was running our unit when the sun went out.

4x05 - Supersymmetry: After finding out that Fred was sent to Pylea by her physics professor, she vowed to either kill him or send him into a hell dimension worse than the one she was sent to. Instead of allowing her to take on the guilt, Gunn killed him before she could.

Gunn: When you and I killed a man.

Trivia

The Show

Behind the Scenes

Ratings: On its first airing, this episode scored a 3.4/5 in the overnight Nielsen ratings.

Newcomer: This is the first episode of Angel written by Ben Edlund. He was moved over to the series from Firefly and given a producer credit in order to help prepare for the fifth season, if WB allowed them another season.

Allusions and References

The Stepford Wives: In The Stepford Wives, the men in the Connecticut town of Stepford have replaced their wives by submissive robots. More well-known than Ira Levin's 1972 novel is the 1975 movie version.

Lorne: Anyone else feel like the last feisty wive on Stepford?

The Body Snatchers: In Jack Finney's 1955 science fiction novel The Body Snatchers, alien invaders take over humans by growing identical looking replacement bodies in plant-like pods; the duplicates eventually kill their human victims. The story has been adapted into three movies.